84 THE OKNITHOLOGIST. 



Hewitson and Booth; the rest, exclusive of the two already 

 quoted, are neither one thing nor the other. Nor can I believe 

 that the four authors last-named have been as widely read in 

 the aggregate, of late years at all events, as " Birds'-nesting 

 and Bird-skinning," by Edward Newman, revised and re- 

 written for a second edition so recently as 1888, by Mr. Miller 

 Christy. In this little and cheap brochure the Sparrow-hawk's 

 alleged habit of adopting the deserted nest of some other 

 species is pooh-poohed as seemingly "only partially true, if 

 true at all." As for publications devoted almost exclusively to 

 the avifauna of the different counties and comparatively local 

 districts, I much question if the same are extensively read 

 outside the restricted geographical areas of which they treat, 

 though I of course except such notable and attractive works 

 as Gray's "Birds of the West of Scotland," Saxby's "The 

 Birds of Shetland," Stevenson's " Birds of Norfolk," Lord 

 Lilford's " Birds of Northamptonshire and Neighbourhood," 

 and a few others which may well be of national worth. All 

 this, however, has reference to a side issue. The tendency — 

 to hark back a moment — seems to be to represent the Sparrow- 

 hawk as "usually," or "generally," or "commonly," or "for 

 the most part," building its own nest ; only as " occasionally," 

 or " sometimes," appropriating that of some other bird. Mr. 

 Hudson, in my opinion, scored a strong point when he re- 

 shuffled the above qualifying terms and characterised the far 

 more prevalent habit as appropriation pure and simple. Nor, 

 in this connection, should I be unmindful that of the three 

 nests of which Mr. Macpherson is in a position to speak posi- 

 tively, two were admittedly founded on the relics of those of 

 another species. 



Circumstances alter cases, 'tis true, and in Leicestershire 

 we are more concerned about the preservation of the fox than 

 the pheasant, and consequently the insensate craving to extir- 

 pate winged vermin is not so pronounced as elsewhere. The 

 many woodlands adjacent to my own home are certainly not 

 lacking in old nests, but because Sparrow-hawks appropriate 

 sundry of these season after season for breeding purposes, I 

 should indeed be demented to associate myself with the doc- 

 trine that the species invariably adopts similar tactics in 

 districts where different conditions prevail ! 



